Excavating material such as coal, ore, or other minerals from an excavation site, such as an open pit mine, may be accomplished using an excavating machine such as a rope shovel equipped with a digging tool to physically remove material from the ground and to dispense the material to a hauling machine such as a dump truck. The hauling machine transports the material from the excavation site to a processing site while the excavating machine remains in place to continue excavating material. Typically, if the processing site is located at any substantial distance from the excavation site, a plurality of hauling machines may be required to be continuously available as the rope shovel continues excavating. The number of hauling machines necessary depends in part upon their hauling capacity, with the larger capacity hauling machines needing to make fewer trips to maintain pace with the rope shovel. One advantage of utilizing a fleet of independent hauling machines, though, is that it enables tracking and tracing of the material being excavated by the rope shovel. For example, U.S. Publication No. 2013/0272829 (“the '829 publication”) describes a method of utilizing sensors and probabilistic data models to track material being hauled about an excavation site by a hauling machine. Furthermore, the individual hauling machines can be directed to different processing sites depending upon the material being excavated.
More recently, excavation sites have begun utilizing in-pit crushing and conveying (“IPCC”) systems that operate in cooperation with the excavating machine to excavate and transport material about the site. The IPCC can include a funnel-like hopper to receive material dispensed from the rope shovel and a local processing unit referred to as an in-pit crusher that functions to break-up or pulverize the material for easier handling. To remove the processed material, the IPCC may be operatively associated with one or more conveyers that transports the processed material away from the excavation site to a common hauling point or processing site. Benefits of the IPCC process include reducing the number of required hauling machines and/or the travel distance that the hauling machines must cover to exit the excavation site. However, the advantage of utilizing individual hauling machines to manage handling of the excavated material is reduced. Accordingly, the present disclosure is directed to a system and method for managing excavated material that is processed in part through an IPCC unit.